If you weren’t in New York for the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, you should have been. We headed out for the looong weekend of festivities.  It all kicked off the the grand gala at the New York Public Library (full of acrobats, cocktails from ALL of your favorite spirits and bartenders, and extravagant decorations).  From there, the event continues with classes and events popping up around the city – check out the official guide in our Islands Issue to see exactly what was going on.  Some of our highlights were seeing Padma at the Campari event introduce a fantastic set of performances at The Box (while sipping on delicious Negronis made by Tony Abou-Ganim himself), Pernod Ricard’s British Invasion – chock full of a British band and fish and chips, Espolon’s (kind of creepy, but awesome) tequila party at New York City’s Marble Cemetery, and Death’s Door’s Pig Roast lunch over at Hearth (with their cheese luge sculpted like a pig).  The entire event was based over at the Astor Center near NYU, and all the big names in the cocktail world where there.  We were even lucky enough to catch gaz regan’s class about the mindful bartender and David Wondrich’s history session.   The event brought all brands together – large and small – even independent spirits had their time to shine at the Indy Spirits Expo… everything from some delicious new whiskies coming out of upstate New York to Balls Vodka (no, I’m not joking).

After the five days of tasting, partying and running around New York city, we were totally spent – not to mention all the after parties and the after after parties.  It was also a great way to kick off Drink Me in New York.  We’ll see you next year….